Fines levied by Russian courts on Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) and YouTube, Meta (META.O), TikTok, and Telegram appear to have been settled since the businesses are no longer listed as debtors in the state bailiffs’ database.
However, the database, which Reuters acquired on Wednesday, still contains X (previously Twitter) and Twitch, with penalties totaling 51 million roubles ($560,730) and 23 million roubles ($252,879), respectively.
Google, Meta, TikTok, and Telegram did not immediately reply to demands for comments. State bailiffs could not be reached right away.
Russia has been at odds with global technology firms over what it considers illegal material and a refusal to retain user data domestically, in simmering tensions that erupted when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Following the invasion, Twitter and Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram were prohibited, and Google-owned YouTube became a particular focus of the Russian state’s ire.
In late 2023, a Russian court fined Google 4.6 billion roubles ($50.4 million), estimated as a percentage of its yearly turnover in Russia. Meta, labeled “extremist” in 2022, has also been fined as a percentage of its Russian income.
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